Mining camps started as clusters of tents and other makeshift shelters. If the mine was
productive, wooden buildings were erected and a town was born.

Conflagrations were a recurring curse. Often entire town were repeatedly destroyed by fire.
Stonemasons, especially Italian immigrants from Liguria, began building "fire proof" banks and
stores of stone or brick with iron doors and iron window shutters to protect the contents
from fire.

Many of these stone buildings survive. Some of them, such as the Butte Store, are the sole reminders
of a lost mining town.